Sister Abigail
by Eryessa
Summary: For 5 years Abigail Winters was thought to have been dead, killed in Iraq during a bomb sweep. But she wasn't, now she's back with scars that are both physical and mental. She has her family, but there is a tall Englishman that could help her through the trials of going back into society after being lost for 5 years. Time doesn't fix all wounds and some of Abby's run deep.
1. Prologue

**I want to first acknowledge all the military people that have served our country, and those abroad who have served theirs. July marks a Patriotic movement for those here in the USA and this is how I want to offer my thanks, by writing a story.**

 **To all of those that have served my country, to those that have fallen for our country and theirs, here is why Bray Wyatt's finisher is called Sister Abigail.**

 **Enjoy**

* * *

 _ **May of 2010**_

"You'll always be like my sister, Abigail," her cousin Windham Rotunda said as he hugged her one more time.

Abigail pulled back and looked at him. "Larry, I'm only going to be gone for a few months. Then I'll be back and I'll kick your ass in boxing."

"Hopefully it's not bare knuckle, the WWE already has one of those," her other cousin Taylor said.

Her Uncle Mike was there with Aunt Steph, and then there was Larry, his brother Taylor and their younger sister named Mike. It was a family of dark haired people- along with the blond woman that was Larry's fiancée- standing together in a public airport. Already having a tearful goodbye with her year old pitbull Koda that morning, now it was time to say tearful farewells with her family.

"Have you contacted your parents?" Mrs. Rotunda asked, straightening out Abigail's hat.

Lightly swatting away her hand, Abigail said, "Yes, Ma'am, I have. They insisted on me calling when I get into Iraq."

"Be careful, Abby." Mika told her. "I already brag that you know how to make and dismantle bombs at school. I want to brag that you came home alive."

Smiling at her Abigail nodded. "I'll try my hardest, Mikey."

It was always the hardest to say goodbye to her family, always. This group had been with her for so many years, through her high school years, through the rough patches with her parents and the mundane, like adopting a pitbull pup that she had seen at a shelter.

"Winters, come on!" Dylan Connors, a member from her unit, called out from the entrance to the terminal that would lead to their plane.

"Hold your horses, I'm hugging everyone goodbye." She called back before turning towards her family. "I'll call as soon as I can, okay?"

"You know you will," Mr. Rotunda said, giving her a look that said it all. You better call and video chat or else there will be consequences. What they might be would be nothing more than a bluff.

Uncle Mike was very much like the father that hers wasn't. Aunt Steph was the mother that Abigail had wished her mother would be like. Her cousins were her siblings. She was their sister Abigail, more than just cousin Abigail.

"You watch out for this one, Cassidy." She said looking at her soon to be cousin-in-law.

Cassidy was the only blond in the group, but she was every bit as much a sister like Mika was. This was a close knit family. It was one of those that Abigail couldn't have asked any better for. This was the best of the best.

"Hey, this isn't goodbye, Abby." Larry told her. "We'll be back together soon."

The temptation just to stand there and talk was overwhelming but her career was with the Army. Her duty was to the safety of the United States, to the innocent people caught in the war over in the Middle East. She had to go.

With one more farewell double handed wave, she turned and headed off with the rest of her unit.

Abigail knew that her family would be watching her plane fly off. She could almost see her Uncle Mike hugging Aunt Steph, Larry mimicking it with Cassidy as Taylor and Mika watched the plane take off.

But no one knew that something worse was going to happen. Something that would shake this family for the next couple of years.

* * *

 _ **July of 2010**_

"Meet you out there," Larry's pro Cody Rhodes said before leaving the locker room

Cody Rhodes was just another generational wrestling like Larry was, he went through a lot of what was expected for a WWE show and stuff that had been ground into Larry from his dad, grandfather and uncles. This was a wrestling family, this was where he was supposed to be.

"You ready?" A once fellow FCW allumni asked.

Stu Bennett played the leader of the Nexus group from the first season of NXT. He was tall, dark and not quite handsome with a bent nose. Sporting his wrestling trunks and his boots, Stu was a British man with a booming voice, a wrestling persona that scared little kids and he had a great personality outside the ring.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Larry said standing up.

Playing as Husky Harris, he did have the husky part down to a T. He was probably the biggest guy in the show, weight wise. He'd always been big with an even bigger heart.

"Have you heard from you cousin lately?" Stu asked as they headed towards the door.

"Not in the last couple of days, which is strange. Usually she emails at least once a day, usually at night though on her end." Then Larry sighed. "They are trying to clear out IEDs and roadside bombs for the locals to get back into."

"A woman that plays with explosives, I'm sure she would be great pyrotechnician here in the WWE." Stu then chuckled to himself.

It wasn't until after the taping of the NXT show that things got stranger.

NXT had just gotten done with, especially with Nexus jumping him and Cody Rhodes during the show. Nexus had no reasoning behind why they were attacking different wrestlers as of late, at least that was how the Writers wanted it. But nothing they could write could explain what happened next.

To see two army people walking up, being escorted through the hall, Larry stopped. That was bad to see. It was never a good thing, it meant bad news followed them, like Death walking just behind them. All the people associated with NXT and the Pros turned their attention to these two military people.

"Windham Rotunda?" The older of the two men asked looking at Larry.

"That's me, what's going on."

"Are you the cousin to one Lt. Abigail Winters of the United States Army?" He asked, ignoring Larry's own question.

All Larry could do was nod. His ability to speak seemed to have been abstructed by the tightness in his throat. He tried to wet his lips, but the ability to do so was for nothing. His mouth went dry, his heartbeat started picking up. Every possible terror, the worst of death, flashed through Larry's mind as the Army man took his sweet time deciding on how to approach the topic.

"I'm sorry to say that your cousin was killed."

Even before the words left the man's mouth, Larry felt his back collide with the cement wall. People like CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, even Stu Bennett looked down and away, giving a moment of respect for a person they didn't know.

"No." Larry croaked.

No, it couldn't be. Not his cousin, not his almost sister Abigail.

"I'm sorry." The man next to the older Army man said.

"Are you sending her body back to Florida?"

That's when the two men glanced at each other, having a mental debate. This wasn't good. She must have been shot, if she was she was going to have the best military funeral there was. But why weren't they saying otherwise.

"Your cousin, and her unit, were searching through a known Taliban stronghold looking for bombs. But there was an explosion and…we've found DNA of her being in there, but I'm sorry to say she's not alive, not with what we found anyway."

"What aren't you telling me?" Larry felt his voice rising, pissed that they weren't giving him any straight answers.

"We only found her left food, that was about all that we found of her. When we were able to look through the wreckage, after a fire, there was nothing else of her." The younger guy said, earning a sideways glare from his commanding officer.

Pressing his eyes closed, Larry pushed himself off the wall. "Thanks." He grumbled to the two military men and headed off towards the locker room.

 _This isn't goodbye, Abby_

 _We'll be back together_

 _Stay safe_

Larry got to the locker room and promptly threw up into the nearest trash can. With his stomach empty- not that he had anything in there before- he was free to curl up in a ball and scream like a little boy.

His cousin was dead. His almost sister was never coming back.

How was he going to survive without her being there. She was going to be the maid of honor at his wedding with Cassidy.

How was anyone going to be now that the one person that practically held the family together was dead, there was nothing for them to bury.

How did life come to this?

* * *

 **So there is it, the prologue to Sister Abigail. I hope you guys enjoyed it. This is going to be a different pairing of what I usually have going on with my stuff. So you'll have to hold out until July for me to actually start posting this story, I'm sorry to say.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	2. Chapter 1

Abigail woke up to the same way she had in the last several years- with dirt up her nose and mites eating her alive. But it wasn't just the mites that woke her up. The door banging against the wall as someone walked into her room.

"Abby," the young voice said, making her aware that it was the boy named Karim coming to feed her again.

Across the dimly lit dirt floor room a boy about ten years old came towards her with a metal pitcher in one hand and a loaf of home cooked bread in the other. She hadn't eaten in twenty-four hours, her stomach was reminding her of that.

"Hi." She mumbled, knowing that today was going to be like any other day for her.

She always woke up at the crack of dawn to work, and by work she did something she regretted every time she tied two wires together.

"How many more?" The Taliban boy asked, setting the pitcher on her right side and then handing her the bread.

Taking the bread she broke it in two, giving half to the boy. "How many from yesterday?" She asked in return.

He sat down in front of her, his hair swaying slightly. He hadn't gotten it trimmed this month, which was surprising since his father made him get it cut at least once a month. The last thirty or so days she hadn't seen him get it cut.

"Six, I count six pipes that you made."

Heaving a sigh she looked at the mess of wires, timers, watch parts, clocks and other salvages pieces of metal that were given to her on an almost daily basis. There were parts starting to come together, another five if she had to think about it. Another four if she got to those that day.

"We'll have nine by tonight." She said. "Five by noon if I can just be left alone for a while."

It wouldn't be the first time some man had come in on her working, demanding something in Arabic to her, which Karim would have to translate for her. She'd been able to speak some Arabic, not a lot though in the five years she had been kept.

The bread was dry, her ass was hurting and her back stiff. At least they had given her a stool to sit on while she did the work that made her sick.

"The Iraqi's are moving closer." Karim said, head down.

The Taliban had been employing child warriors, boys Karim's age and older to fight in their last ditch effort to reclaim their territory. She knew that Iraqi forces were being trained by Iran militant forces, or that was what Abigail had heard through the Karim grape vine.

"Father says we move soon." He added before finishing off his part of the bread.

While she thought about it, Abigail ate her piece of the bread. They would move, as they had a half dozen times before in an effort to hide their secret weapon.

Their secret weapon was a woman that could build bombs and IEDs for them to use against their enemies. And she fixed guns if they were to jam or whatever. And she couldn't do a damn thing about it.

How could a one legged woman escape anyway with nothing to support her?

Ever since she was captured her left leg, or what remained of it, was the painful reminder that everyone probably thought she was dead. It prevented her from trying to escape. She had wanted to sneak out but that would be difficult when she didn't even know where the hell she was.

"Where to?" Abigail asked in regards to having to move again.

"North," came his simple answer.

North, they were already pretty north enough as it was. The Taliban and their Syrian counter parts were fighting a battle on both sides, similar wants and needs to be done. It was hard to believe that she was caught behind enemy lines without anyway to get word out that she was alive. If someone knew they were not going to let that go.

"Come on, Karim." Dusting off her hands, Abigail maneuvered so that she could get up on her right leg. "We have work to do."

Karim was her translator and her assistant when it came to making bombs and IEDs. He had learned a lot from her in the last three years that they were put together. Karim's father was the man in charge of their branch of the Taliban, he knew that Karim would tell him anything American related if the American woman would say it.

"I need that circuit board from the phone." She said putting down her flathead screwdriver.

The only light overhead didn't give her much light. Nor did the occasional background bombs put her at ease as she tied the explosives to the shrapnel case. It only reminded her of the reason why she was alive and why they hadn't killed her yet. They would need her to work her many years of bomb training. Using phones and other such devices to create bombs, both IEDs and Suicides. It was the worse to create the vest bombs, watching the women putting them on without fear of death.

Too many times Abigail had watched the final goodbyes of men and women after she had set the explosives on their vests. She seen the kids crying for their mothers and fathers not to but for Alla they would do it for their families.

"Abby," she looked up when seeing Karim holding the circuit board to a phone out to her.

"Thanks, Karim." She said taking it.

He was tasked with taking apart the pieces mainly. If she asked for something then he would hand it over once he had found it. Her job was assembling them on the only table that was supplied to her. No doubt that when they moved, she would have to get used to the rides.

The throb in her mangled leg reminded her of the nerve damage she sustained to her femur. It was the explosion of an IED that cost her her leg, her unit, her life. If she had just…

"No, shut up." She said, shaking her head.

Karim must have been getting used to her talking to herself. Abigail did that on occasion when her stormy thoughts started to cloud her judgement and effect her work. She didn't want to loose her hands as well as her life, just to have a bomb blow up in her face.

* * *

Hours seemed to slip by faster if she was working on an IED or bomb. By lunch, as she had anticipated, four of the explosives were ready to be used.

"There, that's the fourth one. Go tell them to come pick them up." Abigail said pushing back from the table slightly where she left the four finished explosives.

But before the boy could leave there was one explosion that caused the floor to shake and the single hanging light bulb over head swinging. There were yelling in Arabic, but it was Karim's face that made Abigail worry. He stood with his legs spread, arms out, eyes wide and looking at Abigail. He didn't know what was going on, he'd never been this close to the fighting that the Taliban was capable of.

For the second time that day the door slammed open, revealing the man Abigail only knew as Karim's father. He never gave his name, he was a tall man that often wore a black mask any time he was around. The man had two guns, one AK-47 and a hand pistol of some sort.

"Karim," the man followed the boy's name with Arabic so fast that even if she understood what he was saying, she couldn't make it out.

"Karim," he looked back at her but he had been pulled out of the room.

A second explosion made the dirt fall from the ceiling, making Abigail fling herself into the corner that was where she had been sleeping. She looked up and Karim and his father weren't there. More Arabic yelling, then there was gunfire, bullets peppered the wall that was just up over her head.

She curled up in a ball, arms over her head, her face pressing into her right knee. Abigail was scared, beyond scared. What was happening, what was going on? Was Karim okay?

She wanted to live, Abigail wanted to live for the sake of her family. Reaching into her shirt she brought out something that she always kept close to her heart, a small collection of wrinkled and bent photographs rested in her hands.

The first was a year old blue pitbull with large white front paws. That was her Koda, who sat looking up at the camera with a drooling tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. She remembered taking that picture shortly before she had been deployed. The second picture was of her and her cousins together, again right before she had been deployed. Mika was riding her back in the backyard of her childhood home. Larry and Taylor were trying to keep the two females from falling into the backyard pool. That's what happened shortly after the picture had been taken.

She laughed through her tears as the bombing and the raining bullet peppered around her. If they weren't careful the room was going to explode with the finished bombs in there. She would be blown up again, loosing more than another body part. If her intent was to get out of there alive she needed to do something other that cower like a coward.

When there was a break in the warfare, Abigail stuck her precious pictures back in her top and started to belly crawl towards the door. If she stayed down there was a less likely chance of getting hit.

"Go, Winters. Get moving, you coward." She grumbled feeling the pain in her left leg and her back flair up as she tried to move.

Under her work table she crawled, off in the distance it seemed like the fighting at moved on towards the higher part of the town. Hoping that the children were okay, Abigail continued on. Her longer brown hair had fallen out of the string tie that she had been keeping it in, it fell over her back as she bell crawled towards the door. Her hopes of getting out of there were within reach.

An inch or two towards the doorknob then she would be free of the hole she had been forced to live in. But where would she go when she gets on out? She couldn't worry about that just yet there was another issue at hand.

The door opened inward, it slammed right into Abigail's head, making her roll with the blow of the door. Holding her bleeding face, her vision blurred and the thick feeling of blood coming from her temple and her nose, the bitter taste of blood spilling into her mouth. She could not tell who it had been that opened the door, hitting her senseless but she could make out that they were men.

"She's American." A highly Arabic accented voice said from above her.

It was followed by a series of Arabic words, some saying didn't know, then there was slave or was it hostage? Blinking, Abigail tried to look up, tried to see who it was. She felt a hand going around her neck but it pulled at the dog tags that she continuously wore.

"Lt. Abigail Winters," the first male said. "Are you prisoner?"

"Yes," she finally got a good look at them.

They were Iraqi militant army people, trying to get Taliban out of the country. Or end it at all costs. I hadn't seen them before but I had heard of them. Their flag was pinned to their shoulders, but they lacked proper military uniforms. Some wore blue but other wore used camouflage from when the Americans were involved in their war.

Suddenly someone said something and two of the men hauled Abigail up to her one good leg. With her arms around them, they slowly made their way out of the compound, the hold out of the Taliban branch that had her for the last couple of years.

Bodies laid strewn out, blood covered bodies with guns at their sides. Had they shot a direct hit on Abigail's room then the entire place would have blown up with more dead than what there were in the halls.

The place had once been something like a manor, maybe. She wasn't so sure. But when she had been brought her some years ago, there was an open air courtyard and that was where she saw the worst thing since being taken captive.

They two men were walking by the long dry fountain and a heap of bodies lay there. But one of them didn't have a black mask, an obvious child and one she knew too well.

"Karim!" Abigail yelled, seeing the boy's pale white face turned up, blank eyes peering out of the his marred face. "Karim!" She shoved the two men away, pushing herself to the ground and crawling to the boy. "Oh Karim!" She wailed, pulling his lifeless body to her.

She brought the boy to her, cradling him on the musty floor, the dirt running red with bracken blood. Abigail tried to straighten out his hair, tried to wipe the blood from his pale cheeks. But it were the bullet holes in his back that startled her. They shot him in the back.

"No, no! You murdered him!" She yelled at the militant men. "You killed a boy with his back turned. How could you! He was my friend, he was my friend. He was the only goddamn person that actually cared about me!"

Her sobbing and wailing, keening and cursing made the militant men stop what they were doing. This woman, this American woman was weeping for one of her captures. A boy no doubt.

"I could have saved him!" Abigail yelled, pressing her face into his silken hair, holding him to her as a mother would have.

Karim, that was all Abigail knew him. She never got his last name. But he wore something, something close to him.

With a tug, she pulled off the corded string that hung something in his shirt, something that had been as precious to him as Abigail's pictures were to her. It was a golden crescent and a star pendant, long since lost it's matching gold chain, that she took. If there was something of Karim's she was going to take it.

It was the last thing of the only good person that she was ever going to have from that hellhole.

* * *

 **I actually had to change the rating of the story because of this chapter. I feel so bad for killing a little boy but it is essential for Abigail and the struggles she has to deal with.**

 **Next chapter: Larry gets the call that shakes up his mood and turns his world upside down. Stu is there to help his friend in any way he can.**


	3. Chapter 2

For being as large as Abigail's dog Koda was, the pitbull had never been aggressive to either of Larry's daughters.

"You look so pretty, Koda." Cadyn said as she applied a tiara to his large boxy head.

Some of Ambrose's Mardi Gras beads hand been left over so the two twin girls had already put purple and blue beads around Koda's neck. And not to mention that he was also sporting a little pink tutu that clashed with his blue gray coloring. Along with a fuzzy pink tiara that one of the girls had brought over.

In any normal circumstance this would be a laughing moment, maybe film it or take pictures of a large male blue pitbull letting two little girls dress him up like a princess. Only not this day, not now for Larry at least. His attention was elsewhere, in a different time and place.

The time was around the year 2010, he was reliving his cousin Abigail going off to Iraq to train the local Iraqi forces in dismantling bombs and IEDs. Then the memory would storm over with thoughts and an imagination of a fiery explosion where Larry would see Abigail die with the rest of her unit in that blast.

"Daddy!" One of the girls yelled.

"Yes, Cade?" He asked the four year old while shaking the condensation off of his hand from the beer.

"Mr. Stu was talking to you." Kendyl said pointing to the man that was standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

Glancing over his shoulder, Larry saw his older coworker standing there with his own beer in hand.

"It's that time of year again, isn't it." Stu asked looking at his younger friend and former Nexus teammate.

Stu Bennett and Larry Rotunda had been living near each other in Tampa for some years now. He'd come over when they weren't on the road, some times sharing hotel rooms to save on spending on separate rooms.

"Sorry, Stu, I…" Larry stopped when the other man interrupted him. "I was…"

"With her, your Sister Abigail. I know the story. Everyone has heard about her in some way." Stu then sat down in the chair next to Larry's.

Abigail's death didn't only hit Larry hard, but a lot of people, mostly the family members from the men in her unit also felt the anguish. But it was Abigail's death that made media waves with the WWE. Everyone then knew about Abigail Winters, Husky Harris' cousin, how she became the name of Bray Wyatt's finishing move, Sister Abigail. There weren't a lot of people who didn't know about how she died and how much she loved her country.

"You still miss her, don't you?" Stu asked.

"Is it that obvious?" Larry mumbled.

He remembered that Stu had lost his grandfather around the time he started in with the Nexus and the WWE. Stu understood Larry's grief. He was one of the main friends that stuck by him when the fact no one could bury the rest of Abby's body since none had been found, besides her left foot.

"Do you still miss your grandpa?" Larry asked.

"Every day. But he wouldn't like me to worry day in and day out about the situation. You have a life to get on with." Stu motioned to the two girls playing with the dog.

"Abby wouldn't like that either." Larry scrubbed a hand over his large beard.

"Your girls love that dog." Stu said, trying to change the conversation up a bit.

The beach towel was bright pink with black Zebra stripes and Koda pretty much took up the entire space of it. The two brown haired girls giggled, both oblivious to the two men watching them. The dog simply laid there while he let the girl try to put pink plastic bracelets on his large white front paws.

"I couldn't give Koda up. That's the one thing Abby would hate. She worked hard to make him be everything that pitbulls are not seen as. Loyal, gentle, he's not dog aggressive or cat frenzied. And it wouldn't be the first time we've had a pitbull in the family."

"There were more?"

"One more, named Geronimo. She rescued him when she was a teenager and living with us during her high school years. She was very into proving to people that pits aren't the Devils in disguise. Neither of the dogs ever attacked anyone, thought Gerry seemed to have been a bait dog, his mouth was taped when she found him."

"She sounds like those people in Louisiana." Stu commented.

"She has donated some money to them, so have I. She loved that show, so do the girls. It's our thing to watch when they come over."

"Seems like you enjoy pitbulls."

"I didn't until the night Geronimo saved out lives from a home invasion. That's when Abigail decided to pursue helping people. If she wasn't going to be a police officer then she was going to be a soldier."

Until she died at least.

"Girls," Larry's ex-wife said walking out on the back patio. "Girls it's time to get your things together. Windham, you didn't get them ready." She crossed her arms while looking at him.

"Because today would have been the day, Cass." Larry said through gritted teeth.

Cassidy didn't say anything as Cadyn approached the adults. "Mr. Stu, can you help me take these off of Koda?" She asked pointing to the dog's front paws.

Stu found himself looking at the biggest dog he'd ever encountered in his life. Koda sat down on Cadyn's command and she lifted his paw so that Stu could help.

After managing to get the pink plastic bracelets off, both girl and dog went inside. Stu saw the way Cassidy was glaring at Larry, hands on her hips but the unemotional look the big man was sporting was a little unsettling. Larry was a passionate guy, loved his girls, loved his job, but right then it seemed like he didn't want to do much of anything.

"Grow up, Larry, Abigail is gone. Dead and gone. It's time to move on with your life. It's been five years."

The glass in Larry's hand broke, beer and shards falling to the ground at his feet. Cassidy's eyes only grew larger but her expression was hiding her shock that her ex would have done something like that. Stu had never seen Larry do anything like that. He was sure that Cassidy had gone too far with what she said. It was her fault that the marriage had ended anyway.

"Make sure that the girls are getting all their stuff together." Stu told Cassidy, as Larry looked down at the puddle of liquid between his feet, mixed with glass.

Cassidy didn't fight with the tall Englishman. She did as he told her and walked back into the house to find the girls and the dog.

"Larry, it's not…never mind. I don't know what she was thinking. People are allowed to mourn." Stu stood up from the chair. "I'll get the sweeper. Just stay there."

About this time the next day, Larry would be gone on that European tour, he'd be too busy to worry about life. When it came to the WWE it was hard to think of anything else.

* * *

 _ **London, England a week later.**_

A majority of the roster from the night's show had decided to go out to a club or a bar, pub was the name of bars in Europe. Larry hadn't wanted to go.

"Come on, it'll be great." His off screen friend Jon Good, better known as Dean Ambrose said.

But it wouldn't be great for him. It was still hard to believe that his cousin was gone.

"Oy, how about supper? I know this great place nearby." Stu suggested from his spot near the two of them. "No clubbing or dancing, I'm dead tired. I'd would love to have some proper English food."

Stephen Farrelly was with that idea. "I'm too old to be clubbing."

"That's up to you. I'm going out." Jon said grabbing the rest of his stuff and stuffing them into his backpack.

"Are you taking Renee with you?" Larry asked.

All Jon did was shrug as he picked up his backpack. Nick Nemeth, or Dolph Ziggler, left shortly after talking about someone named Mack, the resident wardrobe artist.

Larry thought about the possibilities. "I don't feel like clubbing. Dinner sounds good."

At a locker across from him, Joe Anoa'i stood up with his own stuff. "Hey, Larry, don't forget to call your girls. I gave you an ass beating and I know they love you." The Samoan wrestler gave Larry an all knowing smile. It was a smile that only someone like Joe, another father in the WWE, would give.

Roman Reigns was a good father, everyone knew that. A lot of the fans didn't know that Bray Wyatt had daughters, unless someone really looked.

So a group of large men walking into an English restaurant in the middle of London was a surprise to the staff. Stephen, Stu, Larry and several other big wrestler men walked in looking for tables. Larry, Stu and Stephen found a table to themselves near a window that looked out at the old fashioned London street.

"He's still having a hard time about it," Stephen asked Stu since Larry wasn't really talking that night.

"Pretty much." Stu said, glancing at the menu.

Neither of the three men said much of anything as they looked for their meals. Larry was having a hard time, which wasn't so much of a bad thing inside the shows. It was outside that was unbearable for people to deal with. The last five years had been like this, Larry getting sullen around July for a week or two around the time that Abigail had been killed.

"Mate, you ready?" Stu asked as the waitress came to take their orders.

Obviously he had been lost in thought and hadn't realized what had been going on. "Uh, sorry, I'll have the Reuben sandwich." Larry said.

The waitress took their orders and left.

"Larry, fella, you have to get over it." Stephen said.

The cold glare of Larry's blue eyes looked up at the Irishman. The anger, lightning blue so sharp that even the large pale redhead Irishman stiffened his back in the wooden chair.

"What I feel and how I deal with it is no one's goddamn business." His hand slapped the table, shaking their glasses, making the ice clank inside of them. "Everyone is telling me how to deal with my sister's death. My ex, you, the only people who don't are my daughters and Stu."

"Because it's not my place to comment on how he deals with pain." Stu then sighed. "Look, Ste, there are some things that he wants to deal with on his own. If he wants to relived nice memories then that's his deal."

"Memories like what?"

"Abigail horsing around with Mika, Taylor and me." He produced a picture of the three of them together.

Abigail carried Mika on her back, both brother trying to keep the two girls from falling over because there was an obvious pool in the background.

Stu looked at the woman who could have passed at Taylor's twin. Her hair and his were the same type of brown hair, but she had brown eyes instead of blue like the brother's had. She had a round face, a straight nose and a smile that made Stu smile as he looked at the picture.

"She was always more of a sister than a cousin to me." Larry said as Stephen looked at the picture. "She watched out for us, she played with us, she got her license and drove us around when we couldn't get rides. We cherished her, our almost sister. And then she decided to go on with an army career."

The words hung there like thick clouds. Stu didn't say anything and Stephen silently slid the photo back across the table to the grieving man.

"I still find it kind of funny that she was insistent on owning pitbulls." Stu told his long time Irish friend. "I mean, the blasted thing let two little girl dress him up like he was a fairy princess of something."

Stephen laughed. "Wonder if Mack likes dogs or even cats."

"Nick wouldn't let you get close to Mack. Besides, you and Mack are two different people."

"Just because Mack is Nick's twin and American doesn't mean we don't have anything in common, fella." Stephen responded.

Larry watched the two of them banter, which made Stu a little more grateful that Stephen was there. Talking about Stephen's love woes seemed to have taken Larry off the fact about his cousin, Abigail.

Larry appeared to be less sullen, talking more and kidding with Stephen about his crush on Mack Nemeth. Stu was the big instigator about Mack and Stephen, daring the Irishman about pursuing the wardrobe employee in a romantic way.

"Nick is only watching out for the best for Mack. They are twins after all, Nick being the older of the two." Stu said.

Just then there was a cell phone ring going off. Stephen checked his, as did Stu but Stu hadn't gotten even one text from Tori that night. Which was sort of strange for Stu.

"Hello?" Larry said upon answering his phone.

Stu watched Larry, confused about the way Larry was looking.

For Larry it was different, it was the voice of a ghost that had haunted him for the last five years. The voice of his cousin, the woman that had died for their family and for the country.

"Hi, Larry, it's me. It's Abigail." A whispy voice said from the other side of the phone.

* * *

 **I hope everyone had a nice 4th of July, at least for the Americans. I also hope you liked this chapter. Though I'm not too thrilled with it, it does show a side of a family bond that Larry has for Abigail.**

 **Next Chapter: The Phone Call and To Germany Larry and Stu go.**


	4. Chapter 3

The phone cord twirled around her finger as she waited for Larry to answer. The stress and the doctors coming in and checking on her had given her the stress and she needed to do something. Calling Larry was something that they told her not to do, the higher ups were telling her not to talk to anyone.

She needed someone to talk to and the number that she memorized was Larry's phone. She wasn't even sure if it was still active.

"Hello," Larry's voice asked upon picking up.

She sighed. "Hi, Larry, it's me. It's Abigail." She tried to sound strong but at the moment she couldn't make it happen.

It was the shocked and scared voice of her cousin Larry that worried Abigail.

"Abigail?" Larry asked, then there was a clanking of a glass being spilled. "Son of a bitch." She heard him curse.

"Don't worry, Mate, we got this." A deep English accented voice said.

"Hold on, please hold on." Larry said.

She could imagine that he was somewhere where he wasn't alone. Abigail sighed, looking at the ring she had placed on her right ring finger. It was the only ring that she owned. Then she glanced at the leg that was propped up on a pillow, fresh bandages wrapped around the stump of what should have been her left leg.

"Abigail, is it really you? Prove it, please." Her cousin begged.

"Windham Laurence Rotunda, you damn knuckle head." She cursed at him, smiling sadly knowing that he thought she was a dead person. "This isn't a joke, Larry. I'm alive."

"But how? You were dead."

"No, everyone thought I was dead. No, Larry. I'm fully alive. I've got some time before I have to go in for surgery. I wanted to call someone and your number just happened to be the only number I managed to memorize from so long ago."

"Surgery?" He sounded like the word confused him. "Surgery for what?"

"Nothing major, Larry. I'm at the Berlin Military Hospital right now. I can give you the address, I figured you would tell Aunt Steph that I was alive, tell everyone."

"I'm in London. I can get there faster than they can." His voice raced, along with her heartbeat knowing that a family member was going to be there for her. "I'll just have to tell my boss, I'll have to cancel some shows but…I'm coming. Give me the address and I'll be there as soon as I can."

Abigail gave him the address to her hospital and then reluctantly had to let him go because they were about ready to wheel her into pre-OP. All she had to do was wait now. Resting her head against the pillows behind her, she looked at the drop ceiling, looking at the small holes as she was being wheeled out of her room. She smiled for the first time in the last couple of days. From Iraq to Germany, she was glad to be so close to family, to getting back her normal life.

Then she frowned. No it wasn't going to be normal. Her leg pain, her aches and issues, they were still there. It wouldn't go away that easily.

As she was being wheeled towards surgery to fix her mangled leg, she was scared. She had been scared to fall asleep, she had been scared to go through surgery because she felt she would never wake up.

While getting put under, she saw him, she saw Karim looking at her, as he did any time she had closed her eyes. This time he wasn't alone, there were familiar shadows behind him. Shadows of people she had known for years.

* * *

Contacting his boss was a hassle. Triple H was not in Europe. He was home with his three girls. Triple H didn't like to travel to Europe when there was a tour on.

"Say that again?" Triple H asked, waking up slightly. "Your cousin is alive? But I thought she was dead."

"She was, she called me and told me that she was going in for surgery. But she's alive."

Across the room sat Stu in mid sit up. He and Larry made eye contact before Stu went back to his routine. Larry had to explain what was going on, which he had already told Stu earlier, along with everyone at the table.

"She wasn't allowed to call anyone. Her commanding officers said not to but she needed to talk to someone. So she called me." Larry explained. "I need to go, Paul. I just…I know I have that match with Reigns but…yes, I understand. Stu offered to go with me to Berlin."

Stu stopped in his sit up again before getting up. Apparently that was the end of that work out routine.

Triple H sighed. "Yes, I'll just change up the roster for tomorrow's show. How long do you need?"

"A day or two but…Stu Bennett offered to come with me."

His boss made a sound. "Fine, you and Stu can go see your cousin. I'll give you three days but you have to get back by next Monday's show in Scotland."

"Don't worry, we will. Thank you, sir."

Stu was now putting some of his cloths in his suitcase. "Are you almost ready?" Stu asked.

"About. There is a plane leaving for Germany in two hours." Larry said in a voice that didn't sound like his usual self.

"What's going through your head, mate?" Stu asked. "What's going on?"

"I just can't believe it, you know. I can't believe that she's alive. She has been alive for five years and no one knew about it."

"I know it's a shock. I don't really know what to tell you, Larry. Just hang in there and wait to see her again. We'll be there tomorrow."

Larry nodded before continuing on with packing up his stuff. Tomorrow was going to be another day.

* * *

It had been early the next morning when Stu had brought Larry to the Berlin Military Hospital. After flying all night and checking into a nearby hotel, both wrestlers made their way to the hospital in search of the missing Abigail Winters.

"Do you think she's okay?" Stu asked pulling into a parking spot.

"She's Abigail Winters and she's the toughest woman I know." Larry boasted.

"Did she say how badly she was injured?"

"No, she only said that she had to go in for surgery. We didn't talk after that. Her parents haven't even tried to contact me or anyone in my family, not since I last contacted my mom." Larry's voice darkened slightly as he sat back in the seat.

Stu hadn't heard much about Abigail's side of the family. He'd only heard about Abigail being with the Rotunda and the Windham families. He hadn't heard anything about the Winters family.

"I'll come to pick you up when you're through."

"Actually, I'd like some back up. I don't know what will happen if I'm there alone."

Luckily for him Stu didn't have any place to be, not that he wanted to go anywhere at the moment.

"You're lucky I'm your mate, Larry." Stu smirked opening his door.

"How is Tori taking the issue?" Larry asked as they started for the front of the hospital.

"She'll get over it. Besides, I need some time away from her."

Dropping the subject of Tori Crawford, Stu's long time girlfriend, the two men made their way to the hospital entrance. Larry was physically nervous and Stu obviously unsure. Yes, he visited American hospitals but those were children. He hadn't any idea what an American military hospital was like. American soldiers seemed to prefer American performers, at least that was what he thought.

"Can I help you?" the receptionist as. She had a slight German accent.

"I'm Windham Rotunda, I'm here to see my cousin Abigail Winters, Lt. Winters." Larry said.

"Yes, she is on the fourth floor." The woman motion to a nearby elevator.

"Thank you, Ma'am." Larry quickly told her before nearly jogging towards the elevators.

"Thank you," added Stu before following his friend.

The two of them checked in at the fourth floor reception area, getting their visitor badges and then heading into the unit. The room Abigail was in was 228, and as they got there they saw a doctor walking out of it. He wore a white coat and there was a nurse in blue scrubs coming out of the room as well. The doctor acknowledged them briefly before telling the nurse to up the penicillin dosage and she left back into the room.

"You must be Lt. Abigail Winter's cousin. Colonel Winters said you'd be coming. I'm Doctor Stein. I'm the orthopedic surgeon that over looked her surgery."

"Surgery, what surgery?" Larry's voice went hoarse for a moment, his brows disappearing up into his shaggy hairline.

"You weren't told?" The doctor sounded shocked. "She had to have surgery to fix her leg. We had told her parents, they said they would tell you when you got here. Anyway," he stepped into the room the two wrestlers following.

Abigail Winter had a nose breather but luckily she was not on life machine, breathing for her. Larry slowly made his way to her while Stu respectfully stayed at the doorway. She looked white, pale white, almost Sheamus white which contrasted with her dark wavy hair. Larry kissed her forehead, just as she would have done many times in the past.

"Abby, I'm here." Larry said.

Her forehead burned with fever. She didn't even move.

Stu saw the bandages covering parts of her body that he could see. While he was counting the various bandages the doctor spoke up.

"Karim."

"What?" Stu asked looking at him.

"It was the name of someone she would say. She kept asking for him when she came out of surgery but with the staff infection, her high temperature, I don't know who she's talking about."

Stu watched Larry look her over, until his gaze fell to her bandaged left leg, the one that had no lower half of it.

"Abby," Larry whimpered, pressing her unbandaged right hand between his much beefier hands.

"Is she going to make it?" Stu asked.

"If she can fight this virus, I do believe so. But she'll need a lot of help."

"Why?"

"She was defeated a long time ago. Lt. Winters will need help. She lost her unit, someone named Karim, being held for five years of who knows what kind of stuff she went through. She'll have more than just physical scars to deal with."

Stu stayed at the door, just watching Larry cry over his cousin. The woman was obviously someone special to Larry. Now he saw where Sister Abigail came from.

Abigail Winters was more of a sister to Larry than his cousin.

Larry finally stood up, wiping his eyes. "Watch after her, Stu. I need to call home and tell Mom what's going on."

"Okay." Stu moved to the side and let Larry out.

Out of curiosity the Englishman went to the hospital bed and looked down at the woman.

She had a long scar near her right ear, curling around down towards her chin. There was a bruise on her head, a goose egg bump that protruded from the left side of her head. But it was the fact that she had half of a missing left leg that was the most prominent injury that the woman had. Her brown hair was a mess, curly and unruly- sticking up in some odd places.

She wasn't a bad looking woman, she was skinny yes ut some pictures Stu had seen she was borderline muscular, much like the WWE diva Natalya.

"Karim," her eyes start to open. "Karim…"

"Hey, hey," he slightly placed his hand over her right hand. "Easy there, Abigail."

Her eyes opened and it took her a moment to look at him.

That's when she screamed bloody hell and took a swing at him with the hand that didn't have an IV in it.

This wasn't how Stu wanted to meet the famed Sister Abigail. Not in the least.

* * *

 **This was one of the hardest chapters that I had written so far. But this is the best that I could get it. I hope you liked it. I'll be back in a couple of days to update again, just hang in there.**


	5. Chapter 4

Stu jerked back, barely missed getting hit in the fast wsith her fist. Instinctively he came back to push her into the bed by her shoulder so she would hurt him or herself.

"Blasted," he grumbled. Even she was strong for being so frail looking. "Someone help me!" He let his booming voice yell louder than anything else in the hospital wing.

Her fingers scratched at him. The bed rail had stopped her right leg from striking out at an area that Stu cherished about himself. The woman was a fighter, he saw that. It was the language coming out of her mouth.

"Fucking Taliban Fucker!" She yelled her eyes boring into his with a hate he had never even seen a fan have for him.

Two nurses and her doctor came in, an orderly on their heels and then the Doctor Stein he met from earlier. Stu let go of Abigail, so that the medical staff could get her under control. But it seemed to be a futile attempt, her heated gaze was on him as he moved away. Eyes wide and all forms of terroristic threats were yelled at him.

"I'll fucking kill you, you damn Taliban punk ass fucker!" She yelled those stinging words at him, the kind that could get to a man's heart.

She was seemingly oblivious to the fact that a a nurse managed to get a syringe of something into her IV. She still yelled, she still fought, nearly kicking the orderly in the face with her right foot in a vain attempt to get up out of the bed to attack him. The Doctor had to pin her shoulders down to the bed, the other nurse held down her arm so the other nurse could load her up with something that could knock her out. Even the machines attached to her were making all sorts of fuss.

But the Englishman stood at the doorway, frozen as he grasped the door jam just to keep from walking out completely. They had to bring in restraints to stop her from lashing out at everyone.

"You killed him, you fucker! You brought him to his death! He was shot In the back, he didn't deserve to die!"

Her fighting and cursing started to fade. Even his girlfriend Tori never cursed as much as this woman did. Larry was able to hear most of what she was yelling before drifting off to sleep.

"What's going on?" Larry asked. "What happened?"

He looked between Stu and the medical staff, probably worried that she had hurt herself.

"It's post traumatic stress disorder. She mistook your friend here for a terrorist." Doctor Stein said motioning to Stu. "I think it's the beard." He leaned down to check on Abigail's left leg.

"Are you okay, Stu?" Larry asked.

"Fine, she didn't manage to hit me, but came close to breaking my nose. She has a bloody good hook to her."

"I'm sorry about that, Stu." Larry tried to apologize to him.

"Why? She has every right to be scared. She obviously had been used in some way than what anyone knows. I know what the being beaten looks like. Maybe if you hadn't noticed but she's got a crooked nose." Stu said nodding to the woman.

He could spot a broken nose like his own anywhere. Stu could at least understand why she thought he was a terrorist.

It was probably his own dark hair and his beard that scared her.

He began to wonder what all had happened to her while being held hostage. Stu felt for the woman, being hurt in the way she was. She didn't deserve all that had been given to her.

Scratching his beard, Stu stepped out of the room to give Larry time with his cousin. Stu already felt responsible for her freak out moment on him. Maybe a walk would be useful, he decided.

* * *

Lost in thought, Stu walked the hall. There wasn't much of anything going, not that he noticed because his head was back with the injured woman. There was a large window ahead of him, once he had looked up. It was a floor to ceiling window, there was a bench seat there just to rest in.

Dropping into the seat, he stretched out his leg and flexed hiss right arm. That Abigail was really strong, a fighter. Much like he had been back in the day. It only made him smile to himself.

Out the window he saw a familiar river, the Rhine River, a prominent river that ran through Berlin. He remembered the times he had come to Europe for his bare knuckle boxing days in his younger years. The years when he didn't look like a Picaso painting. A bent nose one way, large elephant ears. At least that was what he was seeing in the reflection of the window.

"Aren't you King Barrett?" A man asked.

Stu turned his head and found a man in a white lab coat looking at him. He was another doctor for the hospital with pepper gray hair, even his thick mustache was streaked with gray. The man had a chart tucked under his arm, his head tilted to the side as if he couldn't believe that there was a WWE superstar there.

"I am." Stu answered holding his hand out.

"What brings you here?" He shook his hand.

"A friend actually. His cousin is here."

"Lt. Abigail Winters, everyone know about her." He smiled before leaning against the opposite wall from Stu. "I'm Peter, Dr. Peter Conrad. Nice to meet you, King Barrett."

"I'm surprised you're not calling me all sorts of vulgar things."

"You're a bad guy in the WWE, it doesn't mean you're one in real life. Coming here to help your friend, that's an honorable thing to do. Work around here has slowed down because of America's less involvement with Iraq right now. When she came in, it was a massive shock to all of us."

"Because people thought that she was supposed to be dead?"

"Pretty much, yeah. She has been okay that is up until her recent surgery."

"What happened?"

"Staff infection. She's been down ever since. I've been helping her ortho doctor try to figure out why. It's been a roller coaster ride with her since she's been here."

"Bloody hell," Stu mumbled, leaning back in his seat. "She's had it rough."

"It's the nightmares she's been struggling with."

"Nightmares?"

"Yeah, I've seen them before. Wakes up screaming for Karim, whoever he is. And when we ask she won't give it up."

"PTSD, that's what her doctor said."

Dr. Conrad nodded, understanding what was said. "He's right. Since working here I've seen my fair share of extreme limb loss. Arms, legs, one man had a mangled face that killed him later on. It's always so hard to deal with the nightmares. I had served on the front lines in the Gulf War and seen pieces of men coming through the unit I worked. Men crying, begging for their mothers. It gave me nightmares and I wasn't on the front lines."

"What did you do with the nightmares?"

"I had to get a therapist, I had to talk about it. But that was only if I wanted to talk about it."

Abigail was a soldier, she would want to keep what was in her head to herself instead of telling it to some stranger.

"It's the missing limbs that people have the hardest time to deal with."

"What do you mean?" Stu looked at the doctor.

Dr. Conrad sighed, turning towards the window and looked out. "It has a lot of influence on someone's need to survive. If you're missing one part of you, you don't feel whole enough."

"Have there been suicides as a result for this?" That was not something Stu wanted to think about but it was something he knew he had to warn Larry about.

"Sometimes you get to the patient before they get to themselves. She's a woman, everything about life is made to look perfect you know. You've seen the scars."

"Seen them? She bloody near decapitated me with a single punch."

The doctor laughed. "Reflex. She thought she was safe…"

"I know she was hurt, I can see it. I was a fighter like she was, not for military but a street brawler. I've had my fair share of scars. Some of which come from Germany."

Stu scrubbed a hand over his face, scratching at the scruff that was starting to get out of hand. He didn't think that someone would get so depressed that they would ever think about suicide. It was something that didn't happen to him, at least not in the circle around him.

"So what do I do about it?" He asked the doctor.

"I don't know what you can do about it. That's up to her and her family to decide. All I know is that once you're injured like she was it's kind of hard to find happiness in life. I know of one soldier that was a double amputee and he had a fiancee who was a teacher. Lucky for him he was a license teacher. They went on to teach together at their local school. He's never been happier. But, unless she can find something that lights her life, it's going to be one hard road."

Somehow, Stu could understand that.

"Why tell me this?" Stu asked.

"Because someone has to know what to expect when it comes to her injuries. I'd rather be told straight up than get the damn run around. Wouldn't your friend want that?"  
"I suppose. I'll tell him when I return to the room."

"Well, I have to get going. We don't just deal with the military. I have a sick kid to look in on." Dr. Conrad said, pushing off from the wall.

He waited a few minutes until after the doctor left to head back to Abigail's room. It took a few moments because his cell phone went off. It was his ring tone for his girlfriend.

"Tori," Stu said as he picked up the phone.

"Where the living hell are you, Stu?" She asked, demanding actually.

"I'm helping Larry out."

"With what, his divorce was a long time ago."

"His cousin, actually." He couldn't understand why Tori didn't care for Larry. He never was a part of her clique of friends with the WWE.

"Cousin?"

"Sister Abigail, she's not dead. Look, I need to go. I have a few things to tell him. I'll talk to you later when I'm back at the hotel we're staying at. Love you."

"Yeah, you too." She then promptly hung up.

Sighing, Stu got up, turned off his cell and then walked back to Abigail's room

* * *

 **Sorry for the long delay everyone. I have had such a hard month in July and I have finally gotten back to the utmost need to sit down and continue with this story. I really do love all the comments I have been getting and the PMs that you all have been sending me asking about my other stories. I want to focus on this project for right now and maybe then a short story series that I have had put on the back burner for a long time.**

 **I'll be back again soon, I promise. I still have a lot of summer time issues preventing me from sitting down every day to write.**


	6. Chapter 5

Abigail opened her eyes. Her body ached, her head swam the way it would if she had been given hard narcotics. She reached up and scratched her eyes, letting out scratchy moan.

"Abby," she heard her old pet name said by a very familiar voice. Her cousin- one of them at least- raised his head and looked at her. Windham Laurence Rotunda. He looked like he hadn't been sleeping. It was one of those looks that he always seemed to give her. There had been one time before when she woke up to him in a room of hers, but that time had been so long ago.

"Hi, Larry." She said, smiling as her thumb rub over the back of his hand.

The two of them didn't say anything. Larry just hugged her, shaking with the glee of having his cousin back. She wrapped one arm around his neck, her nose pressed into his hair. She could smell him, smell the familiar and welcoming scene of a person she loved so much. It was a woodsy smell, reminding her of the years they would slip out of the back yard and hide out in the woods and bog behind Larry's house.

"Are you smelling me?" Larry asked pulling back to look at her.

"Smell is a good way to remember the nicer things in life." She said, pulling away from him.

"Oh Abby." He mumbled, still grasping at her hand.

Her head still swam, she wasn't sure why. She had that nightmare of that Iraqi man pinning her, pushing his body into hers. Abigail closed her eyes, her hand closing around Larry's tighter.

"What's wrong?"

"Just a nightmare I had. An Iraqi man trying to force himself onto me." She shrugged it off as if it wasn't a big deal.

Larry's bushy face did give away fear, but then he turned his head to look at the doorway in her room. When she did, she blinked rapidly. There was a tall man there, with black hair and a beard just watching them. His arms were crossed over a wide chest and he was leaning against the door jam. But his eyes were on her, staring at her.

Abigail whimpered, trying to sit up further. He looked like the man from her nightmare. She was reaching for the nurse call button, to tell them that someone was going to hurt her but that's when Larry spoke up.

"Hi, Stu." Larry said.

"Hi." But it wasn't an Arabic accented man that spoke, but rather a rumbling English accent. "I see you are up, Abigail."

She didn't respond, her right leg stiff as her foot pressed into the mattress. She felt her breathing kick up, her left hand grasped at the railing in a futile attempt if he were to attack her then she would fight back.

"Abby, this is a friend of mine. You knew him as Wade Barrett, the winner of Season 1 of NXT." Larry said. "His real name is Stu Bennett, he's a real good friend of mine."

Maybe she had known about him, he just didn't look like the man she knew as Wade Barrett. Five years of no television was the downside to not knowing anything that happened with the WWE since her captivity.

"I didn't have a beard, that is probably why you didn't recognize me." Stu said, and she physically relaxed.

Opting not to have a stressful conversation with the tall man, Abigail turned to her cousin. "What are you doing here, Larry." She asked in a pitifully hoarse voice.

"Oh, Abby. You had me so scared." He said. "I came because you asked me to. We talked on the phone, don't you remember?"

She shrugged one shoulder, glancing at the doorway. "Maybe I will in a little bit."

"I'm glad that I'm the first to come see you." Larry smiled, pressing a fuzzy kiss to her forehead, an action that she didn't mind all that much. Actually, coming from Larry it was totally accepted.

"Mom, Dad, they haven't come yet?"

"No, maybe they got held up in Japan. I know they went that way for a last deployment somewhere."

Her lower lip started quivering, her body heat rose and it wasn't because of the fever that she was living with at the moment. The pain of knowing that her parents hadn't decided to come see here was just as painful as her left leg.

"They are closer than you were."

"I had to take a red line, and it's not really easy to find a plane going to Germany at nearly ten o'clock at night." Larry seemed to try to defend her parents. "Oh, Abs, please don't cry."

She scrunched her face up, the bitter taste of betrayal that she felt. She knew her parents were chilly, especially when it came to the things that she did but…she didn't understand.

"Even if they took a flight like yours, they could be here." She said, her voice more tense than it had been before.

She saw Larry look at Stu, holding his hands open and shrugging.

"Don't talk to me about them, remember that gathering I went to a few years back. The one where Colonel Winters nearly concussed Ste." Stu said, he voice lower in a tone that didn't give her the willies.

"My parents hate foreigners. I was dating a Latino guy back in high school and they nearly came back from deployment to ground me." Abigail mumbled, her hand hiding her eyes.

Larry sighed, scratching his head as he thought of what to say about all of that.

"That's nice to know." Stu said, making her look at him. "They wouldn't be the only ones."

"Fans are hard on you?"

"Pretty much. But there are those that really do respect me. I have some coming up to me and asking what I think of America. Tampa has treated me well."

"You're from Florida?"

"My mate Stephen is from St. Augustine. Having studied marine biology, I like to fish when I can." He offered a smile but she didn't reciprocate it.

* * *

Stu wasn't sure if he should tell Abigail what she did when they first met. He hadn't moved closer to the bed, he stayed rooted to the spot at the door.

"People say that I was gone for five years. That's probably why I don't recognize you." She said, nodding at him.

Larry chuckled. "Everyone was telling us that you were dead. The place that the explosion happened, I was told that they found your food but that was all."

"I wasn't, I got blown out of a window trying to escape." She pulled her right leg up and rested her right hand on it.

That was morbid with what she said about what really happened. But at least now he had a better idea what it was that she went through. Surviving an explosion isn't something a lot of people were able to do, at least that's what Stu thought.

Taking the bull by the horns, Stu took to steps into the room. He saw her lean closer to Larry, looking at him sideways. Nothing hurt more than thinking that he was scaring her.

"I'm a good guy, Abigail." He held his hands up in surrender, showing her that he didn't have any sort of weapon. "I'm here to give Larry support. We sort of ducked out of the European tour. My girlfriend really hates that I didn't tell her. Not that she would like to bother, she prefers clubbing that I do. A good beer or maybe a Guiness is something that I appreciate."

Her muscles relaxed, her right leg lowering. Stu smiled a little bit fuller this time. She still didn't really look at him, more quick glances, her attention solely on Larry as he continued to holding her hand and rubbing it. Larry was her only comfort.

"By the way, you've got a good right hook." Stu decided to play with her on that.

"Huh?" She looked at him.

"I did try to get you to wake up, but that was the bad idea. You nearly broke my nose, which wouldn't be the first time. Maybe we could box when you get out of here."

"I, uh, don't know." She said.

"It'd be fun, for me at least. I haven't had a good box in a while and it would be something you and me could do to get to know each other."

"Why?"

"I've listened for years about how great of a person you are. Right now, I could really go for another person who could take me on in a fight. Not wrestle, but a good boxing. Though I was a bare knuckle boxer champion, I wouldn't mind gloved fighting."

She seemed to think about it, shifting her gaze from him to Larry. Her hospital gown slipped off her shoulder as her head leaned back on the pillow behind her head.

"Maybe," she murmured, rubbing her eyes.

"I'll leave you to at it. I feel like going for a jog down by the Rhine anyway, relive some of my better memories during fonder years." Stu said heading back to the door. "Call me if you want a ride, Larry."

"Yeah, I'll do that. See you later." His friend said.

Stu walked out of the hospital room. He saw Dr. Conrad standing at the nearby nurses' station talking to one of the nurses, writing something in the folder. As if sensing him, Dr. Conrad looked up.

"Leaving?"

"Need some time to myself. I figured Larry deserved that. She's scared of me anyway."

Dr. Conrad nodded, tucking his pen in his jacket pocket. "She'll have to get used to you. If you're around a lot more then she'll get used to it."

"How can she do that."

"Prove to her that you're not a bad guy."

"I'm not shaving." He crossed his arms at the thought.

"I'm not telling you to." Dr. Conrad laughed. "Get her to do something."

"She seems willing to join me in a good boxing."

The doctor frowned. "Maybe not that fast just yet. She still has to get used to a prosthetic. Take her somewhere relaxing. May I suggest not to a show at least. Something a little calm. The last thing she needs is to have another melt down."

"I'll think about that, whenever she gets back at least. I'll be back later to pick up my friend. Maybe I'll see you around."

"If we don't, thanks for coming by. I know I enjoyed it." The doctor smiled and walked in the opposite direction that Stu was going to be going.

* * *

 **I wanted to get this out before Monday, because of the fact that there is something awesome I'm doing on Tuesday.**

 **I am going to the taping of Thursday Night SmackDown that will be here in Portland, OR. So if you see a chick with glasses and wearing a glow in the dark pendant with a real spider in it, that would be me.**

 **Thanks for reading everyone. I'll be back when I can.**


	7. Chapter 7

The infection was backing off. The days in that Berlin Hospital had turned into weeks. The physical therapy hurt only second to the pain of knowing Karim was dead.

She would scream in her sleep seeing him bloody and sometimes dead. Other times he wasn't so dead in her dreams. But it wasn't just Karim, it was the memories she had suppressed over the years. Memories that were dreams haunted her. But the dreams were not pleasant. They were nightmares she was forced to relive because she refused to let anyone in.

Abigail would wake up, forgetting some times that she was in a military hosptial in Berlin Germany. She hated to sleep for fear of seeing the little boy, the dead little boy call out to her.

"Abby, please," his bloody hands were held out to her in that mangled wreckage of a stronghold. He had a bullet hole in the center of his head, no matter how many times she told herself that he'd been shot in the back.

That would result in her sitting up and scream Karim's name out, late at night, early morning or even during a midday nap. It didn't matter when she fell asleep, she'd dream just the same.

After a while Abigail refused to sleep. Nurses and her doctors told her that she needed to sleep, to regain her strength after waging war with an infection. But she didn't, she didn't want to suffer those nightmarish memories, and seeing an innocent little boy dead.

With Larry gone she had no one to talk to. Well, sort of at least. He left her a cell phone, since hers had probably either been destroyed, made into an IED or lost in the rocky Iraq desert. Nevertheless she spent hours when she could reconnecting with lost family members, even some that hadn't been born yet when she was taken hostage five years ago. And then there were two who she had never met before, unless it was through the Skype option.

"Hi, Cousin Abby." One of Larry's twin daughters said, her face taking up the entire screen on the phone.

In the dim light of her hospital room, Abigail smiled. It was Cadyn, she had the shade darker hair than her sister Kendyl. That was the most that Abigail could tell of her little cousins.

"I know it's late over there, but I wanted to tell you that Daddy and Uncle Taylor took Kendyl and me to a Raw show here in Florida. Mommy wasn't too happy with that. I got to meet Roman Reigns, you know the guy that Daddy is fighting with in the show."

Actually Abigail didn't know who Roman Reigns was. It wasn't like she could easily watch the wrestling shows she had once devoted herself to know. Slowly she was getting an idea, but she didn't know the here and now of the WWE. Even with her phone that her cousin had given her, she didn't have internet access.

"Guess what, Mr. Stu was teaching Cadyn and me how to box. Daddy said it was okay because Mr. Stu lives near Daddy. Mommy doesn't like Mr. Stu, she likes Mr. Stu's girlfriend Tori."

"Honey, sweetie, I um…" Abigail tried to stop the little girl who loved to talk when Abigail didn't. She frowned and then smiled. "I'm sure you'll be the best in the class once you start real lessons."

"That's cool because I want to be a fighter, just like you." She turned her head away and then smiled. "Mr. Stu is here. He asked how you were doing."  
"I'm doing fine." Abigail answered.

Mr. Stu was Stu Bennett the man that she later learned she attacked, accusing him of being a terrorist or something like that. Her face burned any time she was reminded of that episode.

That's what happened when Cadyn said Stu's name.

"Here, Mr. Stu. Cousin Abby is awake."

"Oh, uh, just for a moment I suppose." She heard the Englishman say.

The image shifted from the phone as it was handed to the very man that Abigail didn't really trust. Maybe it was the beard, his voice made her tense up especially if he were to yell. But she knew instantly the beige color of Larry's front room, and she wondered what he was doing there at all.

"How are you doing, Abigail?" Stu asked as he sat down it seemed like. "You look peekish."

He wore a black t-shirt of some sort. She could see his rose tattoo resting under the sleeve. He smiled, a kind of smile that was hard not to return.

"I'm okay." She lied.

"Then why would you have circles under your eyes?"

She bit the inside of her lip, frowning at the same time.

"If it's insomnia, I can relate." He quickly added. "My girlfriend Tori says it's because I snore."

Abigail chuckled through her nose, a tweak of her mouth showed a smirk that she was trying to hide. At least she was starting to get used to him.

Maybe a little.

She stayed quiet. Abigail just looked at Stu, unsure of how to pick up the conversation. She looked at the crows feet at the corners of his eyes that blended with his beard. He seemed relaxed, leaning back in what Abigail thought was the living room couch. The little that she remembered of this man was that he was so big. He easily could stand taller than a doorway. He owned the entire place that he stood in.

"Tori also says that I think too much. I do enjoy a good book and a football game before bed but she could care less about that stuff."

"I used to play football, the American kind, when I was in high school with Larry." She said, biting the inside of her lip.

"American football, as complicated as my football to understand." He chuckled. "How are you doing? When will you be back?"

"I don't know. I'm being fitted for a prosthetic but I'm going through some physical therapy to help me walk with some crutches. My infection has gone down quite a bit and I'm able to do more things than sleep. I'm feeling better. What are you doing at Larry's house?"

"Oh, just a get together. Hey! Blasted dog!"

Suddenly there was an all too familiar head of a big dog, one that she had remembered, one that she missed just as much as she did the rest of her family.

"Koda." She murmured as the dog's tongue licked at Stu's face.

The pitbull was huge, as he had been when he was a puppy.

"Get off me, you Hell Hound," Stu shoved the dog away. "He's been like this ever since I've started coming over."

Abigail wasn't listening, she was silently crying. There was her boy, her child. At six years old he was borderline old guy. Koda was the sweetest thing she had ever owned as a pitbull. To see him loving on someone other than herself was horrible. She felt horrible that he wasn't there for her, to keep her from crying.

"Abigail, are you crying?" She heard Stu ask.

He had his arm around Koda's neck as if the dog and man were buddies looking at the screen. She choked when seeing the picture.

"You two look so cute together." She couldn't help gushing.

She watched Stu laugh, heard Cadyn giggle in the background.

"That's what your Aunt Stephanie says when I'm around. He won't leave me alone."

"Aunt Steph loves cute things like that. It's not a far fetched thing of her. As for my boy, dogs have a way of knowing who to trust and who not to."

"Your aunt also seems to love it when people come on over. She loves it actually. I've gain five pounds with the sweets she's cooked up."

"She does, it gives her a chance to make her famous peach cobbler. I miss it." She moaned while licking her lips.

"Who are you talking to, Stu?" Abigail heard an unfamiliar female voice ask from in the background.

Stu and Koda looked behind the couch and that's when Abigail saw a pretty black woman standing there with her arms crossed.

"It's my Cousin Abby, Tori." Cadyn said.

"Here, sweetheart, talk to your Cousin Abby while I speak to Tori, outside." Outside was directed to the woman. "Talk to you later Abigail."

After the two adults left, Cadyn addressed her cousin. "Sorry, I don't think Ms. Tori likes you."

"Why?"

Cadyn shrugged before continuing with telling Abigail about life in Florida.

* * *

"Who is she to you, Stu?" Tori Crawford asked her boyfriend.

Tori was five foot eight in height, a lovely chocolate skinned diva that Stu enjoyed seeing every day. He always liked her legs. They were great leg. But the thing that Stu didn't like was that Tori was always jealous of any female getting close to him. She was easily jealous.

"A friend, maybe. I was there when Larry visited her. He needed a friend there for him. You know that. I told you."

"You left in the middle of the night, Stu. You didn't even tell me you were leaving. I was out having a fun time and you just left with no word."

"Are we going to fight about this now?"

"Yes, Stu, we are. You just left like it wasn't a big deal." Her voice started to rise, her hands started to raise in the air.

This was the fights that Stu hated the most when it came to his girlfriend. He watched as she crossed her arms and waited for him to answer.

"So?" She pressed.

"What do you want me to say? I was helping out a mate, he was having issues and didn't want to be alone. Not only does she not trust me, at all, she's not you. I love you!"

"You have a funny way of showing it."

Just then Stephanie Rotunda walked out the front door. "Food's done. Why don't you two come on in and join us."

"Actually ma'am, I've got things to do." Tori said. "You should stay, Stu. Have some fun." She waved her hand and then headed towards her car that was parked on the curb.

Scratching his scalp, Stu looked at Larry's mother. "Well…"

"You don't have to stay, Stu." She said. "I'm sure Larry will understand."

"Seems Tori needs to cool down. Besides, Larry invited me and it seems that everyone keeps boasting about your peach cobbler. I wouldn't mind trying that." He smiled and then followed Mrs. Rotunda into the house.

Stephen Farrelly was already at a table talking to Larry's Uncle Kendall. They talked about Kendall's days with the WWE and how it is different now than it was in the past. Now a wrestling teacher out of the wrestling school the WWE owned he was around more often with the rest of Larry's family.

Cousins and Larry's kids were sitting at a picnic table talking and having a good time. Cadyn was there, minus the Ipad she was using to skype with Abigail. But the big dog Koda was there, using the shade of the table to lay in. He was always near Kendyl and Cadyn, watching out for them and the other kids that were there.

"I can't wait for Abby to get back." Larry's father said, bringing Stu's attention back to the patio table he was sitting at. "Larry's setting up a room just for her."

"Would she have her own place?" Stu asked.

"We want her to live here, with family and close to Larry's girls." Mrs. Rotunda said.

"She lived on the army base but with her missing and presumed dead the just got rid of her stuff." Larry said.

"Why?"

"If she was dead then she wouldn't need them." He said rolling his eyes.

"Windham Laurence, no eye rolls at my table." His mother chided.

Taylor grinned into his hand only to have his sister Mika jab him with her elbow. The brother and sister glared at each other but went right back to eating.

Much of the Rotunda family reminded Stu of his own family. His mum cooking, Dad cracking jokes and Mara getting onto Martin and Lizzie for being childish. Those were the times that he missed most about not being back in the UK, seeing his family. Not to mention the Welsh country side where he grew up. Stu promised his Mum that he'd take some time off to visit them in Wales, but he hadn't had much time to even be a good boyfriend.

One thing was for sure, by the end of his time with the Rotunda and Windham family gathering it was a proven fact that Mrs. Rotunda's peach cobbler was to die for.


	8. Chapter 8

"Are you asking me if I am prejudice? A Racist?" Abigail asked the higher up general that was sitting across from her.

"I just need to ask the questions, Lt. Winters. This is mandatory."

These questions she had been asked were turning into an interrogation. That's what it was for Abigail as she sat through days of it. This wasn't the first time if she had been asked about her stance with the Taliban and the Iraqi people she had to live with for five years.

Abigail was put in a small room on the base. It had one small window that didn't offer any sort of view. Five years of the life she lived, this view was the best that she had seen in a long time. It was just right so that she could see the familiar blue Floridian sky dotted with puffy white clouds.

"Lt. Winters, I'm sorry that it's taken so long." She looked up at General Anderson after the pause in the conversation. "This has to be done the right way."

"I can only guess, sir." She responded.

"We still have some questions we need to go over with you before we can let you go."

She didn't want to answer any more questions. She was right to believe that all the questions were being asked two or three different ways. The government wanted to find the inconsistencies in her statements, to see if she had betrayed her country, even if she already did feel like she did with everything she had to do to stay alive.

"I have read the reports that the Iraqi government sent over regarding the rescue."

She sat down on the cot that she had been sleeping on. The bed was better than what she had been using, but the last few months was spent in a hospital bed in Germany was a better than a dirt floor, bugs and other things that proved to be life threatening and yet she had survived.

"Can we talk about the name you have been known to say?" General Anderson.

She didn't want to be she knew she had to answer and the fact that this was being held only with her superior and not going public.

At least that was temporary.

"Okay."

"Who is Karim?"

She sighed, glancing at the window. "Karim was the little boy that acted like a translator and my assistant. I didn't know anything else besides the fact that his father was a Taliban terrorist ranking kind of officer. I didn't know the father's name."

"What do you mean Karim was your assistant?"

"You know I was forced to create IED bombs for their efforts. If I didn't I would be dead. I needed someone to help me, just to get the amount of work done and they had Karim as my assistant to help with that."

The general wrote down what she was saying in a document.

"How long did you know him?"

"It was going on a few years. Two to three years tops."

The general tapped his knee with his thumb, tapping out a tempo only he knew. Even his foot was bouncing slightly.

"I see." He murmured before making a note of it in his papers.

She knew since the Snowden incident people would look at incidents like these with suspicion. Had she willingly helped the enemy or was she being forced into it? Things like this could easily be screwed up and turned into a circus. The last thing either governments wanted was a dispute between them to cause another war.

Shaking her head, of the what ifs that were floating about in her head. Abigail reached down to rub her pulsing knee.

"You guys are scared of a security breach, I get that, sir. I've only told Dr. Stein not a lot of what had happened, not all but some. It's not really helped either. He says I have PTSD and things can trigger an episode."

"We've taken that into consideration." The general sighed and then shook his head. "I would like to let you know that the president has made it clear that he wants to talk to you tomorrow."

"Do I have to fly?" She almost regretted sounding like a child but she had enough flying to last a life time.

"No, he's coming here."

Great, that's more questions, she thought.

She had already been asked by more men about secret details from her time of being held hostage. She alluded to the beatings, really not wanting to give every gruesome detail of what she had to go through. It still hurt, even almost two months since getting rescued.

"Lt. Winters," Gen. Anderson said bringing her out of her thoughts. "Is something wrong?"

"I want my family." She said.

"I know, just hold on in there for the next couple of days.

Then the general left. Finally alone, Abigail went through her bags and found what she was looking for- her pill bottle. The pain went up and down her left leg, even her foot hurt. If she still had a foot. Phantom pains were the most annoying pain that she could have. But where the explosion had taken off her foot was the most painful, even with all the surgery.

With muscular damage, she needed physical therapy. Her time in the army kept shortening and shortening. She would be out and then have nothing.

She took her pills and sat on the cot looking at her pill bottle.

Her parents hadn't contacted her and Abigail was worried. She did everything in her power to to the right things and then BANG nothing. It hurt that they were ignoring her, like they were embarrassed with Abigail.

All Abigail knew was that she was on her own for the next could of days.

* * *

Stu walked into the Atlanta, Georgia arena where Monday Night Raw was being held. Tori was animatedly talking about gossip from the diva's locker room, stuff like that she was good about talking. Of course he wasn't really listening, his head was in the tag match against Neville and Dolph Ziggler with Sheamus that night. Not on.y that, Stu wanted to ask Larry how Abigail was doing.

"Stu, are you listening?" Tori asked, grabbing his forearm.

"I have a big match tonight, Tori. I have to find Stephen, Ben and Dolph first. There's lot's to do before tonight's match."

He kissed her and said the magic words of I Love You and walked away. Stu didn't want to say the real words of You're Suffocating Me. There hardly been a time to Tori had left his side since Abigail came back, which made it hard for Stu to check up on Larry's cousin.

Nearing the men's locker room Stu saw Larry's two girls with Larry and Taylor. Cadyn looked sad, probably because Abigail wasn't there.

Caydn looked up as Stu near them. Her somber expression instantly brightened. Stu smiled, liking the little girl, but it's what she and her younger sister said next.

"Cousin Abby!" Cadyn yelled running towards him.

Stu stepped out of the way for the girls as they ran by him. Then he saw her, the soldier of the day. It was Abigail Winters. She limped with a cane but she wore her military BDU pants and a simple white cotton shirt. Her dog tags resting outside of her shirt, moving with every motion she had to make. The best thing about seeing her was the smile she was putting on for both of the girls as they wrapped their hands around her waist. Then she started falling.

He took a step towards Abigail, and grabbed her elbow, preventing her from falling. She weighed nothing it seemed like.

"Girls, please be easy with your cousin. She's hurt, remember!" Larry called out as he jogged towards them.

Abigail simply shook Stu off her arm. "I'm used to it, Larry." She said while glancing at Stu.

"Thanks for catching her for me, man." Larry then looked at him as well.

"My pleasure, Larry. Have fun tonight, Abigail." He gave her a salute with his index finger and went along his way.

Stu turned his head and found Abigail watching him. The moment she saw him look at her she turned her attention back to her small family.

He smiled again and went along with his task at hand.

"She's here." Stu said upon entering the men's locker room. "Sister Abigail is here, so you better get to say hi before she disappears."

John Cena was out of there in an instant. A few others filed out after him, which weren't a lot.

Stephen was talking to Benjamin Satterly- AKA Neville. There was cliques in the WWE. The Europeans tended to get with each other when they could, even if they were faces and heels on television, it didn't mean they couldn't be civil behind the scenes. So even though they were enemies in the ring Ben, Stephen and Stu were locker room friends.

"Sister Abigail? Larry's cousin, the name sake of his finishing move?" Ben asked.

"Yeah, she showed up to surprise Larry's girls." Stu dropped his wheelie suitcase next to Stephen's. "Nearly knocked her down."

"You caught her though, right?" Ben asked.

"Pretty much, yeah." Stu smiled back.

"How she look?" Stephen asked.

"In pain, she's putting on a brave face for her cousins.

"The lass has had it hard. I wonder if she's getting help for the troubles."

"Troubles?" Ben asked.

"It no picnic being a POW, I would think." Stu said, knowing with Stephen was talking about. "I don't know if she is getting any help or not."

A person could only take so much before they broke. Stu was amazed she hadn't broke yet, or had she? No one could be sure about anything at that moment but it wasn't his job to figure it out.

"Hey, Steve, Mack wants to talk to you about the design of your new shirt." The superstar known as Dolph Ziggler said walking up to the three friends.

A light rose color crept into Stephen's cheeks as he stood up.

Maybe he would get the gall to finally ask Mack out, Stu thought as the larger superstar left.

* * *

 **I really and truly enjoy this story. I hope you guys did too.**


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